The cultural and creative industries comprise all cultural and creative enterprises that mostly work for profit and produce and/or disseminate cultural or creative products and services. The definition does not cover companies, institutions or associations that rely on public-sector financing.
As part of its Cultural and Creative Industries Initiative, the German government publishes an annual Monitoring Report (PDF, 2 MB) keeping track of the latest changes in the industry.
According to this report, in 2018, Germany’s cultural and creative industries counted roughly 1.2 million core workers, of whom more than 256,600 were freelancers or commercial entrepreneurs and more than 938,000 were employees subject to social-security contributions. In 2018, the number of employees subject to social-security contributions rose by an estimated 3.9%. This means that nearly 223,000 new jobs subject to the payment of social security contributions have been added to the sector since 2009. The total number of people working in the industry, including those in minor employment, was almost 1.7 million in 2018. There were a total of 256,600 companies in the cultural and creative industries, generating combined turnover of more than €168 billion.